Best books on war?

[Balog]

Lately I've been thinking about enrolling in the Military Book Club. The deal I've seen is the first four for 25 cents apiece, plus S&H. I was wondering what books ya'll would recommend I get with my first four. I figure I'll get Cartridges of the World by Frank Barnes, but after that I'm pretty much up in the air. I'd get the Chandler Bro.'s Death from Afar series but I don't think they have them. I've heard lots of good things about The Ultimate Sniper by John Plaster.

Anyone have any suggestions?

To give you an idea of my reading taste, here are some of my favorite military books.

Pathfinder: First In, Last Out by Richie Burns.
Blood on the Risers by John Leppelman.
Force Recon Command by Alex Lee was pretty good.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Death From Afar may be ordered directly from IronBrigadeArmory. http://www.ironbrigadearmory.com They're good reading and I wish the Chandler Bros. would release another volume on something.

 

[Balog]

Oops, don't know how I left out Thirteen Cent Killers by John Culbertson.

Also, anyone know a good book about the Winter War? I find that conflict fascinating, but it's hard to find info on it.

 

[Hkmp5sd]

Buy any of the high dollar books you want for the 25 cents. You can order the cheaper books anytime after you join. The History Book Club is also pretty good. Both clubs have a very good selection. I buy around 40-50 books a year from them combined.

Some good Winter War books are:

Barbarossa: The Russian-German Conflict, 1941-1945 by Alan Clark

Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943 by Antony Beevor

Grand Delusion: Stalin and the German Invasion of Russia by Gabriel Gorodetsky

Russia's War: Blood Upon the Snow by Richard Overy

 

[Balog]

4v50 Gary: while I would dearly love to own those books, they're selling them for $50 a book. There is a reason I'm interested in a club that charges 25 cents per book for the first four. As soon as I come into a couple hundred dollars of disposable income, and I've gotten my wife her pistol and CCW, and myself a rifle or two, and a coupla cases of ammo..... then I'll pick them up. Until then, I A) don't have that much money and B) would spend it on guns/ammo if I did. Thanks for the link BTW, that looks like apretty neat site.

 

[Langenator]

The Face of Battle by John Keegan is a classic if they've got it.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Balog: Dillon use to sell Death From Afar and they had a clearance sale with Vol 1-3 at a very good price. That's what got me started on buying/reading them.

You may want to pick up Soldier too from them as it's about sniping.

 

[moa]

From a purely history perspective, I mention these.

"Flags Of Our Fathers", a recent publication, has been getting excellent reviews. It is about the battle of Iwo Jima. I have not read it yet.

Some books I enjoyed are "Iwo Jima", "Landscape Turned Red" about the Sept. 1862 battle of Antietam, "Crimson Prairie" about the plains Indian wars, "Blackhawk Down" about Somalia 1993 battle, "Band of Brothers" about 101st Airbourne troops fighting in Europe 1944-45, "A Bridge To Far" about the 1944 failed attack to take the Ruhr valley. The list goes on like "The Longest Day" and "Tora, Tora, Tora" about the Normandy invasion and the attack on Pearl Harbor.

I found all of the above excellent reading.

 

[Gewehr98]

oh, my.

Looking at my bookshelves, there's a lot of 'em out on loan, but these stick out as good reading material:

Citizen Soldiers by Stephen Ambrose

MacArthur's Jungle War by Stephen Taaffe

The Ten Thousand by Harold Coyle

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer

That should be a good start.

 

[Balog]

4v50 Gary: there is a large used book sale at our state fairgrounds in a couple weeks. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for good used copies.

 

[Hkmp5sd]

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer

I love that book. Another good one is A World At Arms: A Global History of World War II by Gerhard L. Weinberg.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Second hand books Balog? Auuggghhhhh! I bought some pretty significant books at a great price because they were second hand. In my ignorance I didn't even know how authoritive some of those books were too. When it comes to books, dumb luck serves me better than the methodical attributes of a scholar. Good luck!

 

[Maddock]

I’ll second The Face of Battle by John Keegan. In fact anything by Keegan is first rate.

 

[DMK]

I second the recommendation on Citizen Soldiers by Stephen Ambrose. That's a great book.

Another good one is No End Save Victory which is a compilation of WWI stories by many authors including a snippet from the above book.

 

[Doc]

great books

I finished both Flag of our Fathers and Flyboys: both excellent.

Rape of Nanking was excellent, but it's the story of atrociities rather than battles

see this thread:

books to read

there's also a movie thread out there too

 

[Mike Irwin]

The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman

 

[Ala Dan]

Well, You Got me Stated Now!

Being somewhat of a Viet-Nam War historian:

1. Hamburger Hill May 11-20, 1969 by Samuel Zaffiri

2. Honor Bound American POW's in Southeast Asia
1961-1973 by Stuart I. Rochester & Frederick Kiley

3. Stolen Valor How The VietNam Generation Was
Robbed Of Its Heroes and Its History by B.G. Burkett and
Glenna Whitley

4. Silent Warrior by Charles Henderson

5. Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills by Charles Henderson

6. MIA Rescue - Manhunt In The Jungle by Kregg Jorgenson

7. Cheating Death - Combat Air Rescues In Vietnam And Laos
by George J. Marrett

8. Chained Eagle by former POW Everett Alvarez, Jr.

9. Headhunters stories from the 1st Squadron, 9th Calvary
in Vietnam 1965-1971

10. One Shot- One Kill American Combat Snipers World
War II, Korea, Vietnam, Beirut by Charless W. Sasser and Craig
roberts


This list will get YOU started~!

Best Wishes,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member

 

[Binkus]

Im not sure of the authours but one of my favorite books was tiled SOG, it has to mainly with cross border operations during vietnam. Dien Bien Phu was also a excelent book. Leigh Wade has written a couple of good books about his experencies in vietnam while on a ODA. For world war two Citizen soilders is a very good read dealing with conventinal millitary operations. The book SOG is by far one of the best millitary books Ive read It is almost strictly about special forces recon missions and the Blue torch/light rescue missions. It also goes into some of the phsyclogical operations conducted by the special operations comunity in the Vietnam war.

 

[Mike Irwin]

"there is a large used book sale at our state fairgrounds in a couple weeks.

I don't even have to wait that long...

My Mother has been in the rare, antiquarian, and out-of-print book business for over 20 years.

That's how my Father really got started collecting military books, and how I've latched on to some really great titles over the years...

Dad's personal library of books on WW II military history? About 4,000 volumns.

Boy was it one gold plated SOB to deal with when they moved.

Unfortunately, in my family, that's the smallest of the 3 libraries (Dad's, Mom's personal library, about 5,500 volumns, and the family library, about 10,000 volumns).

Add to that my Mother's business inventory.

There were about 5 times as many truckloads of books as there were truckloads of other personal items...

 

[Detritus]

Im not sure of the authours but one of my favorite books was tiled SOG, it has to mainly with cross border operations during vietnam.

The Author is John Plaster, who as most "gun folks" seem to know wrote "the ultimate Sniper", was in on the design of the Choate "ultimate Sniper/varmint" stocks, and so on.

as for recomendations......

Operation Tuscaloosa, Sniper in the Arizona, and 13 Cent Killers By John culbertson (if you can get past Culbertson's "the only REAL Snipers were...." tirade, part way through 13cent... he REALLY has/had a thing about Hathcock and others being labled "snipers" when they never "went through the course")

We Were Soliders Once.. and Young, By Moore and Gallaway

pretty much anything from what i've come to think of as the "Ivy books 'guys who were involved with LRRP missions in the 101st Airborne' collection"
Recondo, & Death in the Ashau Valley: (Larry chambers)
Eyes of the eagle, Eyes behind the Lines, Phantom Warriors Vols. 1 and 2 : (Gary Linderer)
LRRP Team Leader (John Burford)
Gone Native : (Alan Cornet)
Lest we forget: (William Meacham)
Wings of the Eagle (W.T. Grant)
and the "Six Silent Men" set
Vol.1 (Reynel Martinez)
Vol.2 (Kenn Miller)
Vol.3 (Gary Linderer)

Utmost Savagery: (Joseph Alexander) a fairly objective account of the battle of tarawa (i'm hoping to find an affordable copy of Alexander's "Storm landings" which supposedly is the same type of "overall analysis" of the rest of the major Marine landing in the pacific, in the near future)

SAMURAI! (Saburo Sakai) WW2 air combat from the perspective of a Japanese Ace

Death Traps: By Belton Cooper. a sobering veiw of life in an american Armored Division in Europe During WW2 (and yes the Sherman WAS a deathtrap)

i better stop there, the rest of what comes to mind are mostly things that are now becoming harder adn harder to find due to being out of print, or they are likely things you already have.

 

[Black92LX]

A RUMOR OF WAR by PHILLIP CAPUTO

that is a great book i highly enjoyed it

 

[rick458]

The art of War by Tsun Zsu, talk about mindset and tactics, and has stood the test of time.

 

[Stealth101]

I have been reading the "Knights Cross" The Life Of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel by General David Fraser.....whos a bit of an author with quite a few works published......
Its a good read with lots of insight into Nazi Germany and the mind and tactics of Rommel................

 

[Valkman]

It's hard to recommend - I have most of the books listed and you can pick any of them. I belong to The Military Book Club, and usually I'll quit after I fulfill buying the books and they'll start pestering me to join again after a while. Last time I joined I got a $100 Gettysburg set as one of the 4 choices!

Another good book is a new one called "Boots On The Ground" by a reporter who went into Iraq with the 82nd Airborne. Good stuff there, and as mentioned "Flyboys" is very good.

 

[Croyance]

The Art of War by Sun Tzu. There is a Thomas Cleary translation with additions by his grandson, Sun Pin.
Taught in any credible military accademy. Refered to by military leaders of all eras. Pretty good for a book that predates the Roman empire.
Five Rings (various translated titles incorporate those words) by Miyamoto Musashi.